lives and problems 111
Mother: Th ey said not to bring the person who was ill.Benny: Th ey told you not to bring her. So you, her father and mother, prayed
for her.Mother: Th ey told us not to bring her.Benny: Th en also there is no change [that is, even after praying at Potta, there is
no improvement in Mary’s condition]?Mother: None.We also asked whether Mary and her mother had consulted astrologers or
done any pujas (off erings at a Hindu temple). Mary’s mother explained that they
had not because, “Her [church] father said we will never do such things” and
because “[w]e have faith” indicating that, although some Malayali Christians use
Hindu rituals, they will only engage in Christian worship for Mary’s troubles.
Affi rming her family as an exception to the religious eclecticism and pragma-
tism we found at religious healing centers, Mary’s mother proclaimed “even if
she does not recover from her illness, I am not going to do things like that.”
Shortly after this assertion—and perhaps motivated by the dissonance
between her mother’s profession of devotion to her faith and her parents’
opposition to her joining the church—Mary began to claim she was adopted:
Mary: Th ese are not my real mother and father. You all adopted me. You did not
deliver me... [followed by something unintelligible].Benny: What is she saying?Mother: She thinks that she is adopted by us.Benny: She is adopted.Mother: We are not her family. We adopted her. Th at is in her mind.Benny: Mary, why did you say this?Mary: No reason. It’s nothing.Benny: Why? Are they not giving you real love or is it because they did not
allow you to become a nun. So then? (Pause.) Why did you say what you said?
(Pause.) Mary?